For some reason, we as a society has just accepted the fact that dogs will shit and piss wherever, and on whomever’s lawn. So much so that many people have taken to ruining their beautiful gardens with signs asking owners to keep their dogs out, despite the fact that many dog owners don’t even bother to clean up their shit let alone keep their dogs off of other people’s property. This causes many people to think they’re a good owner simply for bagging their dog shit or removing it, never bothering to realize they’re still contaminating someone else’s lawn.
There’s been a growing trend in dog owners to bag their dog’s poo, then leave it somewhere to “come back later” and pick it up. However a lot of people don’t bother to come back to it at all, or “forget” where they left it. The bagged shit just piles up, more people leave shit behind where it doesn’t belong, and it just bakes in the sun.
A lot of these times, these shitbag surprises are left in parks or along sidewalks, where the rest of the community has to come across them and deal with them, but not always. We’ve had dog owners come onto our private property and leave their bagged shit on the bench in our garden, leaving us to deal with it. The nice bag shit was accompanied by a nice lovely unbagged fresh poop left on the ground in front of it, again, on our private property that is clearly private property. But as you can see from above, when one dog owner decides to be a jerk, a lot of others justify their jerk behavior.
And I know, a lot of dog owners thought process behind leaving their poopbags around is that they don’t want to carry poop their entire walk. Well, tough shit (pun intended), that’s part of owning a dog. If you don’t want to carry shit with you, train your dog to only shit in your own yard, then you wont have to worry about it.
Because even if you do clean up and take the poo with you, you’re still contaminating other people’s yards and public green space by allowing your dog to go wherever it wants. Even if you pick up the big turds, you’re still leaving the residue of it all over someone else’s property. One gram of dog shit can contain a host of gross things, including ringworm, hookworm, salmonella, and a bunch of other nasty things. You’re still leaving all that behind when you let your dog shit on other people’s lawns.
And it isn’t just poop that ruins greenspaces. Dog urine kills grass. It’s high in nitrogen and causes burns to plants, killing them.
If you don’t care that your lawn in ruined from your dog, that’s your choice. But your choice in pets shouldn’t destroy other people’s property or investments.
The simple solution to this is one dog owners seem increasingly resistant to, training their dog to only use their yard and not allowing it to go onto other people’s property. Recognize that you choosing to have a pet means taking responsibility for it and not inflicting it on others, including their bathroom habits.
Every time I tell someone I don’t like dogs, this is usually the first question they ask. And the simple answer is I just don’t like dogs, they’re not my cup of tea. However, I find more and more recently that the short answer doesn’t really suffice and many dog lovers take this as a challenge, demanding to know my reasoning and trying to find some way to change my mind.
For some reason, it’s a controversial statement to say that you don’t like dogs. Even though millions of people have cynophobia (the fear of dogs), there’s still an assumption that most people love dogs and given how fanatical some people are about dogs, it’s generally accepted that the default position on dogs is favorable.
My primary reasons for disliking dogs can be broken down into a few different reasons. I don’t like dogs for these main reasons:
They’re gross
They’re too needy
They’re disruptive
They damage the ecosystem
They’re dangerous
I want to note that these are the reasons I don’t like dogs as an animal. I’m trying to specifically limit my scope to just the animals, not irresponsible owners or insane dog culture (which I also dislike, but each is a huge topic in and of itself). I’m making this clear because a lot of times when I say I don’t like dogs, dog lovers make the jump that I just don’t like irresponsible dog owners and/or dog culture. While it’s true I don’t like those things either, I also truly just do not like dogs. At all.
Dogs are Disgusting
Despite the myth that a dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s being so pervasive, dogs are extremely dirty animals. From all of the outside bacteria they track on their paws and fur to the garbage eating and anus licking, dogs are just absolutely gross animals. A lot of this grossness is overlooked by many people, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Dogs evolved as scavenger animals. Like rats, they’re basically a city’s biological clean up crew. Dogs frequently get into garbage cans, eating rotting food and biological waste whenever they can. What’s worse than eating literal garbage? Dogs also eat poop and vomit frequently, even their own. When dogs do hunt, they eat their prey anus first, unlike most animals that start with the organs.
Even if you manage to keep your dog away from their favorite shitty snacks and other filth, they still frequently lick their anus and genitals. Almost all dogs get infested with worms, and even if you’re able to stop them from eating poop, you wont be able to stop them from going to slobber town on their own anus all the time. Just remember that the next time you’re getting “doggy kisses”.
Even if your dog doesn’t eat feces, lick anuses, or eat garbage, dogs track and pick up a wide variety of bacteria from just being outside. Even if you groom your dog regularly, it’s still bringing loads of bacteria into your home and transferring it onto everything it touches. Watch this clip from Inside Edition. Even though all of the dogs appear to be well groomed, they’re all tracking in so many bacteria and fungi from just being dogs and spreading that all around these homes.
Even the cleanest of dogs are still beyond gross. They’ll still roll in and eat poop and carcasses, then come plop themselves on your couch or bed. While many dog owners don’t seem to mind this, to me, it’s absolutely disgusting. That smell and that filth lingers in your home, it’s noticeable to everyone and there aren’t enough air fresheners in the world to overpower it.
Dogs Are Very Needy
I realize this is a very subjective aspect, but this is my blog and my reasons for not liking dogs, so *shrugs*.
Dogs are just way too needy and too hyperactive for my taste. What do I mean? Take this gif. See how the dog responds when its food source owner comes home? Jumping, liking at the face, and overall hyperactivity from the dog?
Yeah, that’s just too much for me.
I’m someone who enjoys my personal space and doesn’t really like to have it invaded by another creature constantly and that’s what dogs tend to want to do – be in your face 24/7 trying to lick your face, begging for food. Because all of that licking, jumping, hyperactivity is really just a response to the perception that you’re going to give it food soon, it’s not actual affection. Coupled with how gross dogs are in general, I’d rather not have them jumping up on me or trying to lick my face.
But the perceived “happiness” of dogs isn’t the only part of their overall neediness. Dogs are a lot of work. A lot of work. Far more work than any other type of pet. Many, many dogs have psychological issues like separation anxiety and will destroy their owner’s homes if they’re left alone for any amount of time. Many, many dogs have various aggression issues that people try to “train out” of it. A lot of these issues stem from not treating a dog like a dog, but modern dog ownership expects people to basically sign their lives away for the sake of a dog.
Dogs Ruin Peaceful Environments
Dogs are disruptive to pretty much any environment they’re put in. Whether it’s a bunch of dogs barking their heads off at every pedestrian walking down the street, barking at wildlife when on nature trails, or constant begging for food, dogs ruin the peaceful atmosphere wherever they go.
Imagine you’ve just bought your first home and you’re enjoying a fresh cup of coffee on your back porch looking over your new backyard with a sense of pride when suddenly your neighbor’s dog starts barking its head off. Maybe at first you brush it off, figuring the dog would eventually give up, but it doesn’t. It keeps barking, and barking, and barking. For hours at a time, just barking at the top of its lungs every time your neighbor goes to work. You might try talking to your neighbor, but they simply shrug and say “dogs bark” and you’re left with your new home being constantly polluted by the sound of someone else’s choice of pet.
That may seem like an exaggeration, but that’s the reality many people live with, the inability to have peace and quiet in their own homes because someone else chose to get a dog. That’s why many cities have adopted noise ordinances specifically about incessant dog barking. It’s such a pervasive problem that there are multiple devices on the market aimed at getting someone else’s dog to shut up. And most of the owners are unbothered by the fact their pet is destroying someone else’s peaceful home.
It’s also nearly impossible to have a nice meal at a dog owner’s home. Most dog owners now refuse to put their dog away for company or even properly train the dog. That results in most of the dinner spent with a dog literally begging at the table (or worse, stealing from plates). Even if the owners do put the dogs away, many dogs just spend the entire time whining loud enough that it ruins the meal anyway.
Dogs Destroy the Environment
Aside from noise pollution, dogs also have an immense impact of the environment. We’ve had research for over a decade that dog ownership has a larger carbon footprint than an SUV, yet instead of being more responsible about dog ownership, we’ve seen an explosion in the dog population and dog consumerism.
In the past decade alone, the dog population has increased by 12 million. That additional population, coupled with the no kill movement and dog consumerism, has massively increased the burden on the planet and our environment. From emissions from all the additional manufacturing of dog goods to the extra needed resources to raise livestock for dog food, dog ownership greatly contributes to the climate change crisis. Yet we tend to ignore that issue because many dog owners wouldn’t give up owning a dog, even if it means the destruction of our planet.
But even putting overall carbon emissions aside, domestic dog ownership wreaks havoc on our ecosystems. Dog waste is a huge pollution problem everywhere. In the US alone, pet dogs produce up to 21.2 billions pounds of poop and a significant percentage of owners don’t pick up their dog’s poop (or weirdly, bag it but leave the bag). All of that waste ends up in our lakes, rivers, and water reserves polluting it.
Yet even when people do pick up their dog’s poop, it still leaves residue on the area where it was passing along all sorts of bacteria and parasites. One gram of dog poop can contain roundworm, hookworm, whipworm, parvo, salmonella, and a host of other really gross things. Even if you pick up the majority of the poop, the residue and microbes are still on the poop site. When you let your dog poop in a neighbors yard or a park, you’re exposing the children who will later play there to those contaminants. Dog urine is also known to kill plants and grass, so ideally dog owners should only use their own grass as their dog’s toilet, yet 99% of dog owners think their dog should be able to poop and pee everywhere, regardless of whether it’s ruining someone else’s property.
Aside from the carbon emission and poop pollution, domesticated dogs frequently attack and kill other animals causing huge issues in ecosystems. I’ve seen dogs in our local parks nature center (where dogs are prohibited in the first place) attacking and killing all manner of birds and rabbits, destroying the fragile ecosystem there. Unleashed dogs on beaches disrupt, trample, and kill baby chicks and nesting birds, decimating entire populations. And still, many dog owners insist on breaking regulations, bringing their dogs everywhere, and destroying natural habitats of other animals.
Dogs are Dangerous
Despite how many dog owners push the narrative that their dog is harmless and wouldn’t hurt a fly, dogs are dangerous animals. It’s just in their instincts to hunt, attack, and kill – no amount of training would make a dog completely harmless.
In the US alone, there are over 4 million reported dog attacks against humans alone. Over 900,000 of them require medical attention and about 50 of them result in human death every year. Many of these dogs are from loving homes and are considered family pets. Children under 5 are most at risk of being attacked, even with constant adult supervision. A lot of dog apologists will blame the children for these attacks, but domesticated animals should never attack humans, let alone children.
Many of these attacks are against babies in bouncy chairs and bassinets, literally doing nothing to the dog or posing any threat to the dog. Dogs have even ripped babies out of their owners arms to maul them to death. Denying the danger dogs pose to young children does nothing but perpetuate cycle of child deaths on the alter of dog culture and advocacy. Blaming parents and children for their own attacks is cold hearted when society continually pushes the narrative that dogs are loving, safe, and gentle creatures when they aren’t.
But the US is not the only place in the world with a dog attack problem. Between November 2017 and May 2018, 12 children were killed by a pack of strays a small village in northern India, 6 of them in one week alone. With millions of strays and few vaccines, India also has an epidemic of rabies, accounting for over a third of the world’s rabies deaths. With dogs posing a huge threat to the population there, the country faces so much backlash from dog’s rights groups for culling the strays, many of them “rescuing” the dogs and shipping them to the West.
The threat to human safety isn’t the only safety concern with dogs. Dogs have been known to attack wildlife, livestock, and other people’s pets. In some cases, dogs have broken into homes to kill other animals. Dogs frequently terrorize sheep when they’re left to roam or escape, resulting in many farmers having to euthanize entire flocks. Very rarely do they even eat any of the sheep, they simply attack and kill them for fun.
He doesn’t bite. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, he’s a good dog.
Every dog owner right before their dog attacks
There’s been this shift in society where the narrative is that everyone by default likes dogs and some people just can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t. A lot of this is propaganda by the shelter/rescue industry and the billion dollar a year pet industry. The simple fact is some people just don’t like dogs, and that’s ok. Some people have cynophobia, some people are allergic, and some people just don’t like them. And despite the narrative pushed currently, it’s perfectly reasonable to not like dogs.
No Dogs on Mars 